Acquisition
by DDG
Summary: *Gen, Preseries* work noun 1 activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a result.
1. Acquisition

**Title:** Acquisition  
**Character/Pairing:** T-Bag  
**Prompt:** #089. Work  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Summary: work noun 1** activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a result.  
**Author's Notes:** Pre-series. Flashbacks to kiddy!T-Bag at the hospital. I originally tried to have him there because of all those health problems he could have, seeing as he's inbred, but then I came up with a different reason. Morbid!kiddy!T-Bag _loves_ hospitals.

I have this . . . mental image of T-Bag and . . . a dictionary. Then the plot bunny strikes and this happens. Enjoy. -Also posted on the Prison Break 100 LiveJournal community and Prison Break Fic-

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_**work noun 1 **activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a result._

"Abnegate. Renounce or reject, as in something desired or valuable." Theo paused, considering the word. "I abnegate this dictionary." He picked at the worn binding of the open dictionary before him. "Yeah, abnegate. Like the sound of that," he muttered, scribbling the word down on a scrap piece of paper. "I sure do _abnegate_ those pretty girls at school." He nodded to himself. "Don't even think that pussy of an English teacher knows the word _abnegate_."

He flipped the page, searching out a new word. "Abrogate." He repeated the word silently before rereading the definition. "Nah." He skimmed along the next page. "Abrogate is too similar to abnegate. . . ."

His finger paused over a particularly intriguing word. "Ab-squaw-choo-late. Absquatulate." He licked his lips, liking the word already. The possibilities of its use in a sentence . . .

"How 'bout we stop all this absquatulating? The animal absquatulated. Absquatulate, boy, now!" He scribbled the word down. "Yeah, that's it."

Digits grazed over the fading pages and he skipped forward through the alphabet to "S." He grinned as he flicked past "salacious" and moved onto the next page.

"Salient." He laughed _salaciously_. "His cock was salient." A few more pages were flicked past.

"Salubrious." The word irked him. "I've never lived in a salubrious place." He jotted down the word and dropped the pen on the desk. The dictionary was slammed shut and shoved in a drawer.

"Well, 'cept that one time. . . ." He leaned back in his chair, smiling and closing his eyes as memories of a hospital that reeked of death came rushing back.

"_I'm bored! How come I can't go home? What happened to that one kid? What's wrong with that kid?"_

"_Shh! Theodore! Hush, now! Jackelyn is sleeping!" A harsh cry erupted from Jackelyn's bed and the nurse threw a withering glare in Theodore's direction before rushing off. Theodore scratches at the tape holding the IV in his arm._

(**2** such activity as a means of earning income.)

"_Nurse!" Jackelyn's screaming so loud, Theodore knows the nurse can't hear him, but he continues calling for her anyway, because the ten-year-old likes how angry it makes her._

_Jackelyn calms and Nurse rounds on Theodore. "What_ is _it?" She's usually such a sweet, kind, nurse, but Theodore just pushes all her buttons._

_Ten-year-old Theodore smiles at her, that ungrateful smile that Nurse hates, because she swears he's the spawn of the Devil . . . he did try and burn down a house, after all._

"_Nurse . . . I'm—"_

"_You're bored. I know, Theodore." Nurse glances around the room and spots a bookcase. She walks over to it and pulls off the largest book._

_She thrusts it into Theodore's hands with no regard toward the painful blisters hiding beneath the white bandage. He stares at the cover, then at Nurse._

(**3** a task or tasks to be undertaken.)

"_The dictionary?"_

_Nurse nods. "That's right, Theodore, and I expect you to keep your mouth shut while you read the entire thing."_

_Theodore looks back down at the thick tome, then warily opens it._

"_A, noun, the first letter of the English alphabet." He tilts his head and reads through the next few definitions. Before he realizes, hours have passed, Nurse is resting, a new kid has been settled into the bed neighboring his and Jackelyn hasn't screamed in what seems like forever._

"_Ferrule, noun. A protective cap on or around a shaft or pole. Ferry, noun, also ferryboat. A boat for transporting passengers, vehicles, or goods. Ferryman, noun. An owner or operator of a ferry. Fertile, adjective. Able to produce offspring . . ." Theodore trails off as he glances around the room._

"_Where's Jackelyn?" he asks Nurse._

_Nurse glances at him and scowls. "She's dead."_

_Theodore blinks and flicks through the dictionary's pages. "Dead, adjective. No longer alive." He sucks on his upper lip almost mockingly and Nurse continues to scowl. "Does that mean—"_

"_Yes, Theodore."_

"_So they're all," he looks at the definition again, "'no longer alive'?" He knows exactly what the word means. He's fascinated by it. Entranced. He just knows how much it bothers Nurse when he asks stupid questions and he enjoys knowing how much it bothers her._

"_Yes, Theodore."_

_Theodore smiles at her serenely and wonders if she knows what he did to Adam while he was sleeping. He wonders if she knows why Nina went so quietly. He wonders if she knows that he sneaks out at night and goes down in the basement to look at all the dead bodies. He wonders if she knows that he touched Adam's heart and got Nina's blood all over his hands._

_He wonders if she realizes how much death there really is around them. He wonders if she knows how many bodies have been transferred into the morgue in the last week._

(**4** a thing or things done or made; the result of an action.)

_He wonders if she knows that _she's next.


	2. Desecrate

**Title:** Desecrate  
**Character/Pairing:** T-Bag  
**Prompt:** #038. Touch  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Summary:** When Mrs. Hathe was poisoned no one suspected ten-year-old Theodore Bagwell or any of the other children the nurse had tended to in that particular wing of the hospital.  
**Author's Notes:** Pre-series. Sequel to the flashback in "Acquisition." -Also posted at Prison Break 100 and Prison Break Fic-

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When Mrs. Hathe was poisoned no one suspected ten-year-old Theodore Bagwell or any of the other children the nurse had tended to in that particular wing of the hospital.

Theo distinctly remembered reading the labels on the back of all the chemicals in the supply closet down the hall. He chose the one that had the largest skull and cross bones and the most warnings about accidental ingestion. When Mrs. Hathe was busy with one of the other children he poured a copious amount of the chemical into her coffee and settled back into his bed to watch the show.

She'd clutched at her throat moments after drinking the remainder of her coffee before falling to the ground, mouth gaping like a fish out of water. Her eyes had been wide and bloodshot. The vomit had smelt like acid.

A doctor walking by had ruined the show by rushing her to the emergency room on a Gurney with two other nurses in tow. Theo took the opportunity to return the half-empty container of the chemical back to the supply closet. When he'd returned, Mrs. Hathe's replacement was already tending to the other children.

He liked the new nurse because she smelled nice and smiled at him with her perfect teeth. She had blonde hair that she always had up in a ponytail like all the other nurses did. When she changed the bandages around his hands, she was gentle and didn't rub the salve on too hard like Mrs. Hathe had.

Two police officers had come in the day after Mrs. Hathe's murder to ask Theo and the rest of the children if they had seen anyone pour something into Mrs. Hathe's coffee. Theo told them that the janitor had came in the other day to clean but Theo had fallen asleep and woken up when Mrs. Hathe was being taken away. The police officers had thanked him and went off on their way.

The janitor had been arrested the next day because his fingerprints were all over the container of the chemical that had killed Mrs. Hathe. Theo was glad the janitor was gone because he hated him just as much as he'd hated Mrs. Hathe. The janitor had caught him in the morgue one night and dragged him back to his bed by the ear, scolding him for "desecrating the dead." Theo was more careful to avoid the janitor on his future visits to the morgue.

Mrs. Hathe's body was still in the morgue, covered by a white sheet which Theo pulled back to reveal her cold, listless body. The skin was pale and clammy to the touch. Theo almost wished he'd stabbed her because her skin was too smooth and unmarred for his liking. No scars, no cuts, no blemishes, nothing.

Reaching out with a bandaged hand, Theo pulled open one of Mrs. Hathe's eyelids and pressed a finger against the dilated pupil. He smiled and unwrapped the bandage at his fingertip before pushing against her eyeball again. He liked how it felt beneath his finger and remembered when he'd gutted the neighbor's dog and kept the eyeballs because he'd liked how they felt when he'd held them in his hand. He'd kept them in a box because he didn't know any better but a week later they had dried out and no longer had the same slimy feel.

He considered grabbing a scalpel from one of the nearby tables and taking Mrs. Hathe's eye as a souvenir but reconsidered when he remembered the other part of the hospital's basement where all of the extra parts were stored. He'd swipe something from there before he left and put it on the shelf in his room.

Theo slid his finger under the eyelid, rubbing the sensitive cornea before dragging the edge of his nail along it, ripping it open to expose the underlying layer of the eyeball. He pulled back the transparent cornea and pressed his finger against what lie beneath. He bit his bottom lip in thought after pushing the cornea back and pulling the eyelid down.

His bandaged hand traveled down Mrs. Hathe's body, brushing against a breast as it passed before coming to rest at the juncture of her thighs. Theo leaned his head down and stared at the area of female anatomy he was unfamiliar with. He pulled back the bandage on more of his fingers and pushed them into what he assumed was the vagina, probing Mrs. Hathe deeply with his curious digits.

His thumb slid along the top of the vulva, brushing away pubic hairs here and there. He wondered how a live woman would react to what he was doing and tried to imagination Mrs. Hathe's face twisted in pain or perhaps ecstasy or even a mixture of the two. He pulled his fingers out when he couldn't figure out what kind of expression she would have and stood back, frowning.

He threw the sheet back over her and silently pushed the steel table she was laid on back into the freezer.

Theo chose a freezer door at random and pulled out another body.


End file.
